Over a span of three decades, the Los Angeles Clippers earned a reputation as one of the laughingstocks of North American professional sports: predictably awful, poorly run, forever overshadowed by the Los Angeles Lakers.
With the arrival of Chris Paul, that could all be changing. In basketball-mad Los Angeles, it already has.
Attendance is up to 19,335 per game, No 6 in the NBA, and the Clippers are getting national television exposure for the first time, well, ever, and have become destination viewing for aficionados.
Heady stuff for a team with only four play-offs appearances in 33 years since leaving Buffalo for California.
Victories last week over the Lakers and the Miami Heat took the Clippers to 6-3 and, shockingly, to the top of the Pacific Division.
They are not the finished product, yet for a team thrown together two weeks before the abbreviated season started, the Clippers are playing remarkably well.
"We know that we are a team that's still developing," Paul said. "But we want to win while we are getting to know each other. It's a process. But we all believe that we will become a good team."
The makeover of the Clippers has been swift but hardly unprecedented; the side were perpetually rebuilding. Only one player from three seasons ago is still on the squad, the centre DeAndre Jordan.
The coaching staff and general manager are new, too. The infamous and inept owner Donald Sterling, however, remains. Which makes this story more amazing.
The Clippers made strides last season with the emergence of the forward Blake Griffin, the Rookie of the Year and a latter-day Human Highlight Reel.
The key was adding Paul, the elite point guard. He wanted away from the New Orleans Hornets, and the Hornets felt compelled to move him.
After a trade with the Lakers was shot down by David Stern, the commissioner, as not being in the best interests of the league, Paul was sent to the Clippers for the guard Eric Gordon, the forward Al-Farouq Aminu, the centre Chris Kaman and a first-round draft pick.
It was a lot to give up, but no one around the Clippers was complaining. When they next claimed the veteran guard Chauncey Billups from the New York Knicks, they were a new team.
Now they are young, talented and exciting. Their defence and rebounding need work, but they have already served notice they are a team to be taken seriously.
"They're a good team, they're a really good team," said the Heat's Chris Bosh after the loss. "They are going to have some battles, and adversity is going to come. We'll see how they handle it."
sports@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
RACECARD
6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 1 (PA) $50,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
6.35pm: Festival City Stakes – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,200m
7.10pm: Dubai Racing Club Classic – Listed (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 2,410m
7.45pm: Jumeirah Classic Trial – Conditions (TB) $150,000 (T) 1,400m
8.20pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 2 (TB) $250,000 (D) 1,600m
8.55pm: Cape Verdi – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,600m
9.30pm: Dubai Dash – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 1,000m
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2014%20PRO%20MAX
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
